


A Great and Sudden Change

by vexednperplexed



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-25 22:09:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13222239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vexednperplexed/pseuds/vexednperplexed
Summary: Soulmates, the only magical thing in a world without magic. Not everyone had them, but they were common, very common. Some pairs have a specific birthmark that fades when the two meet, some hear each other, some see color for the first time when they meet. Apparently soulmates existed in the Enchanted Forest as well, if her parents were to be believed. But Emma never experienced anything like what they had described, so clearly she didn’t have one.But when she and Mary Margaret fall through the hat into the Enchanted Forest after the curse in Storybrooke breaks, she feels different. Something's changed, and her mother might have an idea why.Soulmates AU, Season 2 AU





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I love a good Soulmate AU, and with And So the Story Goes getting more and more challenging for me to write, I wanted to try my hand at this trope. I also found an enormous list of soulmate ideas, and I wanted to use them. 
> 
> Here's the list! http://r-evolve-art.tumblr.com/post/144380748003/master-list-of-soulmate-aus
> 
> Rating may change in later chapters.

It seemed like soulmates were the only magical thing in the Land Without Magic. Not everyone had one, but they were common enough that they were constantly talked about in the media. It wasn’t strange at all for magazines to say “10 Ways to Get That New Summer Body”, “This Year’s Top 100 Sexiest Men”, “How to Read Your Soulmate Attributes”. 

Emma didn’t have a soulmate, she was certain. She could see color, her eyes never changed and were both green, she didn’t have a strange birthmark or numbers written anywhere on her. The only voice in her head was hers, and if a song was stuck in her head, she knew why it was there. It had been sad growing up without any sign of a soulmate attribute. Other kids in foster care would often talk about how at least they had a soulmate out there somewhere, and eventually they wouldn’t be alone. It had to be nice knowing every time they heard a poorly sung song in their head, their soulmate was out there waiting for them. She was so jealous, especially of the kids that had multiple attributes. She met one girl who would hear her soulmate’s voice in her head, couldn’t see color, and had a number printed on her wrist - 25. Three! Three attributes to let her know she had someone out there for her.

Emma had a baby blanket with her name embroidered on it.

When she met Neal, she constantly searched for something that felt different. Were colors brighter? Could she hear music better? Did they both suddenly lose a freckle? She wanted so badly for it to be true, for Neal to have been destined for her. He felt so right - but of course when she ended up pregnant and in jail, Emma was glad that nothing had changed. Having no soulmate was better than being rejected by the one person that was meant for you. 

Henry asked her if his dad was her soulmate. She may have lied about his father being a hero, but she was honest about that. No, he wasn’t. Emma couldn’t tell if Henry was pleased by the answer or not, but from what she could tell he had no soulmate attributes either. He seemed to just take it in stride, like he hadn’t been looking for an answer one way or the other. 

Mary Margaret had a soulmate attribute. One evening after work, they were talking over a mug of hot cocoa. She told Emma that she used to hear it all the time, her soulmate humming or singing. It had been years since she’d heard him though, and she wondered if he was depressed and that was why he stopped. Emma hadn’t had the heart to tell her that if she hadn’t heard a peep in years, the poor guy had most likely died. Mary Margaret probably knew that anyway. 

So it was difficult to believe it when Mary Margaret came up to her about a week after John Doe - David - had woken up from his coma insisting that she heard the humming again. 

“Mary Margaret,” Emma had said in a cautious tone.

“No, I know! I know. Just a weird coincidence. But, isn’t it just a little weird? Henry insisted we were true love, and then I read to him and he woke up! And now I’m hearing the humming again.”

Emma didn’t know what to say to that other than to tell her friend to be careful. 

After the curse broke, Emma didn’t know what to think of anything. Obviously the weird coincidence wasn’t one at all. Mary Margaret really was Snow White. David really was her soulmate. And they really were her parents. All she wanted to do was curl up with a couple bottles of wine and try to make sense of the whirlwind that had taken her life and swept it away. Emma had her son, her parents, and she was living in a town full of magic and fairy tale characters. And she was the daughter of two of them.

Magic: Real. Parents: Real. Curse: Real. All of it: Real. 

Emma needed time to process it all, so of course the universe saw it fit to shove her into a hat and teleport her to some far off land with her friend-turned-mother so she had exactly no time to process it at all. Now she was stuck in a land that was unfamiliar with a woman she wasn’t sure she knew anymore with no foreseeable way back to her son, and something felt very… different.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Forgive any typos, I'm un-beta'd!

The Pit. It was a hole in the ground, so Emma supposed the name was pretty fitting. Mary Margaret was still unconscious, and with nothing else to do but wait, Emma took some much needed time to reflect. They were stuck in the Enchanted Forest, and taken prisoner. And in a hole. Emma leaned against the dirt wall of The Pit (™) and let her head fall back as she looked up at the sky.

She didn't like this place. Not only was it full of more things she only vaguely understood, and only recently believed was even real, but it felt strange. It was hard for her to even explain, but she felt electricity under her skin. Something warm and alive. She didn’t understand it at all and figured it had something to do with just the damn realm. Maybe it was the magic here, or maybe it was her subconscious telling her to get home to Henry because sitting there was making her feel antsy. Whatever it was, she didn’t like it. The sooner she got home the better. Back to her kid, back to a town she somewhat understood, and back to a world with running water.

Emma absently picked at the shoelace wrapped around her wrist. When asked, Emma swore she wasn’t a sentimental person. But she was. The necklace she always wore had been from Neal, a constant reminder of love lost, and what opening herself up to someone had cost. And the shoelace around her wrist was to remember someone who was gone too suddenly but deserved to be remembered all the same. And it was also a reminder of what happened when she tried to get close to people. They die, or they leave. Now she had a kid and her parents, and even if Emma didn’t fully accept what having her parents back meant, she knew she would do anything to keep the same from happening to them.

She was smoothing the shoelace over her left wrist when she saw it, a thin, curving, dark line on the inside of her right wrist. It startled her and made her feel very, very cold. The flower tattoo she’d gotten a long time ago, but this new one on her opposite wrist she had no memory of. Emma ran her finger tips over it, and it felt hot to the touch. Tingly. It looked like a backward S, but the tail was elongated. There was another reason to go back home, no mysteriously appearing tattoos.

Emma was too busy contemplating her new body art and wondering if it was dangerous to realize she and Mary Margaret weren’t alone in The Pit (™) until someone was walking out of the shadows and offering help. Emma scrambled to her feet, and after a moment of quick words, the woman - Cora - decided to look Mary Margaret over. Emma already had, but considering her fr- mother was still out cold, she figured it couldn’t hurt.

“You sure she’s gonna be ok?” Emma asked after Cora stood back up.

“She’s going to be fine,” Cora insisted. And while the whole situation was making the hair on the back of Emma’s arms stand up, she did feel a little bit better with someone else’s assessment of the situation. And maybe she could get some answers now that she had some company and a moment to breathe. Cora told her they were on an island that the people here called their Haven. Apparently the world was dangerous now, but Cora didn’t elaborate. Emma didn’t want to stay long enough to find out anyway.

“They can’t keep us here,” Emma explained, although she and Cora both knew it didn’t really matter what she said. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”

Cora just shrugged and smiled at Emma with a patient sort of expression that only a very motherly type of person could manage. “Neither did I,” she said. Emma wasn’t buying it. Something was bothering her, apart from the tugging she felt and the strange tattoo appearing on her wrist. But this other ‘something’ was familiar. It was her lie detector, and it was going off.

“Then why are you here?” she demanded.

“I’m here because of something my… daughter did. The curse that ravaged this land: she cast it.”

Emma felt her blood go cold. Every muscle in her body instantly tensed, and her eyebrows shot up towards her hairline. “Regina,” she said tightly. “ _You’re_ Regina’s mother?”

Cora took a step back, perhaps because she could see the tension building up inside of Emma. “Yes, but you have nothing to fear from me. The apple fell very far from the tree.” Emma wasn’t so sure about that, but she’d only just met the woman. She had an answer for the uneasy feeling she was getting at least. “You’re from over there, aren’t you?” Cora continued. “How’d you get back?”

Before Emma could even consider explaining, she heard her name being called from behind her. Snow stood up a lot faster than someone who had just been unconscious really should, stepping in front of her and shielding her from Cora. The situation went from tentative to hostile in five seconds flat, and it was all from Mary Margaret insisting that Cora was even worse than Regina. Maybe that was true, but maybe Cora could at least help them get back. Emma didn’t care who was on whose side so long as she got back home to Henry and away from this land that made no sense to her.

They didn’t get the chance to further discuss the situation, though. A rope dropped down from the top of The Pit (™) and a guard said their leader wanted to speak to them.

 

* * *

 

It had been a long day. After getting out of The Pit (™), things happened… well, more or less in a blur. The leader was Lancelot, and Emma had been getting weird vibes from him from the get go, like she had from Cora. Like she had from everything in this world. Mary Margaret had been thrilled, even hugged the guy. He was apparently a really good friend, and Emma was glad they’d found a friendly face that didn’t want to blame them for the death of someone they didn’t kill, but she didn’t trust him. She didn’t trust the chimera she ate, either.

Food and talking lead to them deciding to go look for the wardrobe Mary Margaret had sent Emma through as a baby, hoping it would have enough magic left to send them back. Emma liked the idea of a plan, but she had read Henry’s book. That wardrobe had only enough magic for two people, although Marco had said one - semantics. Whatever. The point was, she was pretty sure the magic was used up. But it was something to try, and it got them away from the haven and The Pit (™), and it was _moving._ Emma wished they could have gone without Mulan and Aurora, but it was better than being in the dirt hole again with Regina’s mother.

Mary Margaret kept trying to make small talk on the way, something Emma really didn’t want to partake in. It was mostly little things about the weather, or what sorts of things they missed out on being cursed for Emma’s entire life. She decided to share a few things about Henry, like some school projects she thought Emma would have loved to see, and maybe she still had them somewhere. That part was actually nice. It was a little odd talking about something so normal while they were walking towards a castle to find a magical wardrobe, but Emma wanted normal. That was what was waiting for her back home, and it kept her focused on the task at hand.

“And you know, I just had a thought!” Mary Margaret announced excitedly.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Emma groaned.

“No, no! It is! See, I just heard your father.”

Emma stepped over a particularly prominent root and pointed it out so Aurora, who was close behind her, didn’t trip. How she was trekking through the wilderness in that dress, Emma didn’t know. She would have fallen on her face at least eight times by now.

“Humming?” Emma asked, suddenly realizing maybe they had a method of communication. Alright, so maybe Mary Margaret’s idea really was good. They could talk to Henry, sort of. Through song.

“Yes! See, it’s common knowledge here that before you meet your soulmate, your attributes don’t trigger if they’re in another realm. After, well after then you’re always connected. But before you meet, it’s only active in the same place.”

Mary Margaret had a huge grin on her face, like she just discovered gravity and it all made sense. Emma thought she understood where the conversation had been going, communicating with Henry still on her mind, but the explanation was throwing her off.

“Okay?”

“Well, what if they’re _here?_ ”

Emma still wasn’t following. “Who? David and Henry?”

Mary Margaret waved the question off, walking carefully around a tall patch of grass.

“No, they’re definitely back in Storybrooke. But I meant yours, your soulmate.”

Oh. Emma groaned as she followed in the literal footsteps of her mother. The path was getting narrow, and she didn’t want to happen across some sort of magical snake or whatever.

“I don’t have one, end of story.”

“Not back in Storybrooke, no. But _here_ , maybe you do!”

“I _don’t_ , okay?” She didn’t, and she most certainly didn’t need one anyway. All she needed was to get home to Henry.

“Are you sure, though? Has anything popped up since getting here?”

Emma tripped over a root and landed flat on her stomach. The question had distracted her, but only because the answer was yes. Something had popped up, the tingling and the tattoo. Mary Margaret rushed over to Emma and helped her stand.

“Are you alright?” she asked worriedly. Emma accepted the help, but she let go of Mary Margaret’s hand and distanced herself as soon as she was on her feet.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just didn’t see the root,” she insisted as she brushed the dirt from her jeans.

“Less talking would help,” Mulan said in a cool tone as she walked up behind them. While it was probably meant to be a jab at what Mulan likely saw as frivolous conversation, Emma couldn’t help but agree. She didn’t need a soulmate, didn’t need the tingling feeling or the tattoo. She just needed to get home.

The tingling under her skin never stopped, but it was easy enough to ignore. Especially when they finally made it to her parents’ castle and things got busy. Walking all that way only to be left with the ruins of a castle, the ashes of a wardrobe, and finding out that Lancelot wasn’t actually Lancelot really put a damper on her whole day. And the emotions… She didn’t think she could just stop being angry with her parents for giving her up, for letting her be without them for her entire life, but as she set that wardrobe aflame for Henry, she got it. She would rather never get back to Henry than let Cora get to him. But they would find another way, they had to. And she would never stop trying.  

The whole walk back, she felt anxious. Emma had no idea where it was coming from, but she just felt it. Nervous, alert. Ready. It was like the feeling she would get before a stake out, or when she was getting ready to take down a skip. Or preparing to confront Regina. Honestly, it felt like she was preparing for a fight, or whatever was about to come. But they were walking through the wilderness again, on their way back to camp. Nothing should be causing that feeling, she was certain of it.

That feeling paired with the tattoo and the tingling under her skin had Emma feeling dread. What if Mary Margaret was right? The tattoo was a classic soulmate attribute. The pair would have the same tattoo somewhere on their body, and it was strange and obscure enough to be one for certain. The tingling - it wasn’t an attribute she’d heard of before, but there were new ones popping up all the time. She wouldn’t put it passed anything, and now with this phantom anxiety coming out of nowhere? That was also a classic attribute, feelings and emotions from the soulmate connection passing through one person to the other, especially in times of stress or even pain.

If Mary Margaret was right, then all of it would go away as soon as she got home. Emma didn’t need a soulmate, not even a little bit. It was just another reason to get the hell out of here.

They had decided to stretch the truth a bit to the people of Haven when they returned. The people didn’t need to know that Lancelot had never actually been Lancelot, that they had been duped by their prisoner the entire time. Mulan said they would never feel safe again, and that was the opposite of what Haven was meant to do.

“I don’t know if I can do this, I’m not a very good liar.”

“Oh, it’s not really a _lie_ , Aurora. Lancelot did die an honorable death, and Cora did escape. All true,” Mary Margaret reasoned.

“Just - leave the particulars to _us,_ ” Emma chimed in. Aurora didn’t even need to talk at all if she wasn’t confident she could do it. “There’s no need to cause unnecessary panic amongst your people.”

“I’m not so sure it’s unnecessary!” Aurora insisted. But whatever was left of her argument when Mulan ordered them to wait, nervous by the lack of guards at their post. With the suggestion that everyone stay close, they approached the camp. And that anxious feeling was suddenly her own after all.

The state of the camp was a shock. Everything was broken and busted, and bodies littered the ground in every direction. Emma had seen a dead body before, even two. But not this many, never this many. She felt numb as she walked through the camp. The theory of this having been an ogre attack died quickly when Mary Margaret noticed that all the bodies had holes in their chest, and then it was yelling about Cora.

Emma was busy looking at the bodies, and her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it had grown in size or had been cloned. The bodies… so many… At first when she saw the hand moving, she thought maybe she was seeing things. But it moved again, and she called out. Aurora was all too quick to jump up and help the man. He called for help, which was odd when he was already receiving it, but there was something else.

Just like with Cora, her lie detector was going off. With that plot twist so fresh in her mind, Emma didn’t trust this survivor at all, and he hadn’t even gotten off the ground yet. But to be fair, a lot of things were getting weird with her. That tingling of her skin was still very much present, for instance, and so was that phantom anxiety. Before outright accusing him, she wanted to gather some intel.

While Aurora and Mary Margaret helped the survivor off the ground, she and Mulan went to get some water.

“You seen him before?” Emma started bluntly. It was Mulan she was speaking to, no need for any sort of build up.

“Yes, I’ve seen him around. He’s a blacksmith, came to our camp a couple months ago. Said he lost his hand in an ogre attack.”

“Why would Cora leave a survivor? It’s messy, doesn’t make sense.”

“You think he’s lying,” Mulan deducted. Her words came out in a statement, not a question. That was why Emma wanted to have this talk with Mulan and not her mother or Aurora. No convincing, no insisting that it was just a miracle or anything else. Just down and dirty suspicion.

“I think Cora’s tricked us before. I don’t want that to happen again.” Having gotten what she needed out of the conversation, Emma decided it was time to test her lie detector out on the ‘survivor’. “Here ya go,” she said as she set a salvaged up down on the table in front of him while Mulan came up behind her to pour some water in.

He reached for it immediately and smiled up at her. His face was full of relief and gratitude, and before he opened his mouth, just for a split second, Emma thought he might either actually be telling the truth, or he was a really good actor.

“I can’t thank you enough for your kindness,” he said. “Fortune, it seems, has seen fit to show me favor.” A damn good actor.

Emma leaned against the table and watched as the man drank greedily from the cup. Just as he was trying to butter her up, she would do the same for him. Time to start that interrogation. “An island full of corpses, and you’re the only one to escape. How exactly did that happen?”

The actor put on a good face, looking rightfully upset and terrified as he spoke. “She attacked at night. Slaughtered everyone in one fell swoop.” So far, his words rang true. “When she started ripping out hearts, I hid under the bodies of those who had already been killed. Pretended to be dead myself. Mercifully the ruse worked.” His voice fell flat as soon as the lie was uttered. It was such a dramatic shift that Emma was startled for a moment. She looked around, wondering if this guy’s acting was as bad to everyone else, but they appeared sympathetic. Seriously? This wasn’t even her usual lie detector, an instinct down in the pit of her stomach telling her something was off. No, this guy’s actual voice changed. Clearly he couldn’t tell a lie to save his life.

“So much for fortune favoring the brave,” she said as she leaned in a little closer. It was a clever story, after all who would admit to being a coward unless they were telling the truth? Shame that his voice sounded as chopped and flat as a 5th grader in a school play.

“It was all I could do to survive.” Another horribly told lie.

Emma leaned across the table, wanting to get the truth without having to go to much effort. Maybe this guy was more of a coward than just hiding under bodies? As she held herself up on her elbows, she decided to give him one last chance to tell her the truth before things got ugly for him. “I’m gonna let you in on a little secret,” she said softly. “I’m pretty good at knowing when someone is lying to me.”

“I’m telling you the truth.”

Emma smiled at the lie. Things were going to have to get ugly after all. She pushed herself up from the table and looked over at Mary Margaret. In the year where they had been friends, they’d gotten fairly good at talking to one another through a look. Emma hoped that didn’t all disappear once the other woman remembered who she was.

“We should leave here in case Cora decides to come back,” Mulan suggested. Emma kept looking at Mary Margaret. _Distraction_ , she tried to say with just her eyes. After a moment, Mary Margaret looked down and started talking. It was a relief to know she still had that connection with the other woman, and it was certainly useful now.  

“We should start searching for a new portal back to Storybrooke,” Mary Margaret started, speaking loudly as Emma walked quietly behind the man.  “I only got about five minutes with my husband, not to mention my grandson.”

“You have a grandson?” he asked, and his voice sounded back to normal.

“Long story.”

“Well I know this land well.” Emma pulled out her knife as he spoke. “I can guide you.”

Suddenly, Emma reached out for the back of his head, gripped his hair between her fingers, and yanked backwards. She thrust her knife against the bare skin of his now exposed neck and spoke harshly to him, annoyed that they simply couldn’t do it the easy way. “You’re not gonna guide us anywhere until you tell us who you really are.” And to give the guy credit, he didn’t argue.

 

* * *

 

Mulan had absolutely no problem stringing the guy up to the tree. Mary Margaret allowed it and helped where she could, but she did so silently. Aurora very clearly was upset by the situation - and that was well enough Emma supposed. The girl was naive, and that was something they simply couldn’t afford to be. Not with Cora out there, killing entire encampments without much of a fight.

“I already told you, I’m just a blacksmith!” he insisted. Why would Cora leave _this_ guy? Every lie that came out of his mouth sounded fake, flat, and false. His expressions looked convincing enough, but did anyone actually buy anything he was saying?

“Sure you are,” Emma said with a shrug before she stuck her fingers up against her teeth and whistled loudly. The roar in the distance was instant, which startled Emma a bit. She knew an ogre had been in the vicinity, but that close? They wouldn’t have much time to get this guy to tell the truth. But maybe that would help them in the long run. He wouldn’t have much time to play games, either. “You don’t wanna talk to us? Maybe you’ll talk to the ogres while they rip you limb from limb.”

The footsteps shook the ground and echoed off the trees. Wow, alright… that was definitely _way_ too close. Shit. Everyone was nervous, and Emma quickly decided screw it, the guy lied, she would have no qualms over leaving him for dead. Maybe she didn’t know why he was lying, but she couldn’t take any chances that he was working with Cora. She’d intended to use the ogre as a scare tactic, but with it as close as it was, it was better to just let him die.

“Come on,” she said as she turned on her heel and began to walk away. Mulan quickly gathered her things, and while Aurora and Mary Margaret didn’t look happy with the situation, neither argued.

“You can’t just leave me here like this!” he yelled. He struggled against the ropes holding him fast to the tree, but with only one hand there wasn’t much he could do to get down. Mulan had done a good job.

“What if he’s telling the truth?” Aurora asked, hesitating in her steps and looking up at the guy with more concern than he deserved.

“He’s not,” Emma told her as she continued to walk away. And it was after another roar that Emma could almost feel the decision in the man. He sounded resigned as he sighed.

“Good for you!” he called out, his voice suddenly sounding far more normal than it ever had. Emma stopped in her tracks and turned. “You bested me. I can count the number of people who have done that on one hand.”

“Is that suppose to be funny?” she asked as she approached the tree again. “Who are you?”

“Killian Jones,” he said calmly. “But most people have taken to calling me by my more colorful moniker. Hook.”

“As in Captain Hook?” she asked, wanting so badly for it to not be true. Neverland, crocodiles, wax mustaches, and this guy didn’t seem to match any of that.

“Ah, so you’ve heard of me.”

Not wanting to think too much about what Captain Hook being real meant, she kept her face cold as she got to the point at hand. “You better hurry up, they’re getting closer. So unless you wanna be dinner, you better start talking.”

“Cora wanted me to gain your trust so I can learn everything there is to know about your Storybrooke. She didn’t want any surprises when she finally got over there.”

“She can’t get there, we destroyed the wardrobe,” Mary Margaret insisted, sounding like she wanted to just leave Hook tied to the tree and move on.

“Ah, but the enchantment remains,” Hook continued.  “Cora gathered the ashes, and she’s going to use them to open a portal.” The roar in the distance - though not as distant as it had been - startled them all. Hook looked the most uneasy, as well he should be. “Now if you’ll kindly cut me loose...”

Mulan suggested they leave him tied to the tree to pay for his crimes, which Hook insisted weren’t actually his. Emma didn’t care. The ogre was getting closer and she didn’t want to waste any time in getting away. It wasn’t just a simple matter of letting Hook loose, no. Now they would have to take steps to make sure he couldn’t follow them. The best way was to just let the ogre have him, as gruesome and cold-hearted as it was. Emma agreed with Mulan, and once again she turned to leave.

This time, fear spiked up in her chest, and for a moment she felt breathless from it.

“WAIT!” Hook cried out. Already feeling frozen from the moment of panic and terror that rose up inside her, Emma turned to look at the man. “You need me alive.”

“Why?” She was surprised that her voice came out as strong and confident as it did. The moment of fear and panic subsided quickly, but she could still feel it there on the edges of her mind.

“Because we both want the same thing, to get back to your land.” Hook’s blue eyes held hers, unwavering. The footsteps of the ogre were coming closer and shaking the whole world, but his eyes stayed glued to hers. She was the one who held his life in her hands, so it made sense.

“You would say anything to save yourself, why are we supposed to believe you now?”

He explained his deal with Cora, arranging transport for her if she allowed him to come with her. And apparently she needed one more ingredient to be able to get there, a compass. He would help them get the compass and provide them with transport for his life and being able to come with them. And every word he spoke was nothing but the truth.

“Sounds too good to be true,” Mary Margaret spoke up, hesitant to trust him especially after his attempt to deceive them.

“Well there’s only one way to find out,” came his defiant answer. Actually, there were two ways. Emma knew without a doubt he wasn’t lying to her now. She trusted everything he was saying, but there was one little problem. Emma grabbed her knife again and held it to his throat once more. She had his attention instantly, his eyes sliding from the tip of the blade to hers, daring her to use it.

“You tell me one thing, and whatever you say I better believe it,” she told him darkly, her unsaid threat heavy in the air between them. “Why does Captain Hook want to go to Storybrooke?”

“To exact revenge on the man that took my hand. Rumpelstiltskin.”

They both stared at each other for a long moment, each sizing the other up, before another terrible shake of the earth rumbled around them as the ogre came closer. And then Emma cut him loose.

 

* * *

They made camp at dusk, as far away from the island as they could get on foot in a day. Even with their interlude with the tree and the giant, they still got a good distance between them and Haven according to Mulan. There was a small fire in the center of their encampment where Mary Margaret tried to cook up some dinner. Aurora was off to the side leaning against a log, trying desperately to fight sleep. Mulan looked on stoically, her sword leaning against her shoulder and ready for anything. Hook they secured to a tree a bit away from them, but still well within view. He didn’t fight it, didn’t argue. In fact, other than to tell them which direction to head in, he didn’t speak much at all.

Emma sat off on her own, every now and then sneaking a glance at their captive. While he may have been quiet, every time he caught her looking his expression grew more and more smug. Emma wanted to punch him. Deciding that if he caught her looking one more time, either he was going to smirk so hard that his face split or she would split it for him, Emma turned her back to him to stop the temptation. It was curiosity mostly. The man looked like he should be the best liar in the entire world, and yet his lies sounded so off a child giggling about stealing candy would be more likely to get away with crimes than him. How did a man like that become a pirate?

The phantom distress she’d felt earlier had faded away, and Emma felt a little relieved. If she did have a soulmate here somewhere - not that she believed that she did - then she was glad that they weren’t upset anymore. And once she and Mary Margaret returned home without ever meeting them, all of this would go away.

Her finger traced along the lines of her new tattoo. It still felt warm to the touch, maybe even more so. That, the phantom anxiety, and the tingling under her skin made Emma think her mother really had been right. And it sucked. Emma didn’t want a soulmate, and it sucked for them, but that’s just how it had to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this was basically a recap of the first few episodes of Season 2, but I needed to get my setting placed. Things will start changing from canon soon!


End file.
